A teenager who was one of eight models raped by an armed gang of illegal miners in South Africa while shooting a music video has described the horrific attack, telling how she and her sister were given their virginity by the men’ stolen’.
Nombosino, 19, whose name has changed, and her 21-year-old sister had taken a £15-a-day job to model in a gospel music video when they were attacked by the gang near an abandoned gold mine in July. van Krugersdorp were ambushed. 28.
The teenager, who feared for her life at the hands of the heavily armed gang, told how the men raped the black and Indian women, but left the three white women who were part of the 22-man production crew alone.
The models and crew, the youngest being 19 and the oldest 37, were raped up to 10 times by the criminals over several hours.
Nombosino told the local newspaper City Press: ‘We were excited when a local girl who runs a modeling agency told us about the shoot and promised us R300 each (£15) at a farm in Krugersdorp.
“Then it was decided to shoot another part at a mine and the place was beautiful as we were about to shoot the final scene, men started running towards us and firing shots in the air.
The photo shows South African police arresting members of an illegal mining camp near Krugersdorp after a gruesome gang rape of eight women last week
“They ordered everyone to lie down and more men came running out and they all had guns and they started frisking us and took our phones, clothes and cameras.
“During the search they started touching our genitals and one forced me into a car and then the first man raped me. I started bleeding when a second man came.
“He saw the blood but raped me anyway and I asked him to tell the others not to rape me and had to lie and say I just lost my baby when they took it out one by one.”
Nomboniso said her sister, 21, who was not named, was subsequently put in the car with her.
Nomboniso said she sat on her sister’s lap to protect her, but two men got her out of the car and dragged her to a hole in the ground.
The 21-year-old sister told City Press: “The two men started raping me. They had guns and threatened to kill me if I didn’t do what they said. I started bleeding and that helped me.
“It was a very traumatic experience that lasted about four hours for all the girls and one of the ladies was raped in our eyes.”
Women protest outside Krugersdorp, South Africa, Magistrates Court Monday, Aug 1, 2022
Dozens of protesters, the majority of whom were women, were pictured last night marching outside the Krugersdorp courtroom with placards denouncing the shocking crimes.
Another victim, 18, told City Press that she took the modeling job for £15 to buy food, but was assaulted during the shoot and raped by two men who were not wearing condoms.
She said she hid in a tree for an hour, but one of the rapists saw her and pushed her towards the other girls and worried she didn’t know what was going to happen.
The victim said: ‘They started taking us one by one and took us to the nearby forest where they raped us and then four men picked me up after the first two.
“I was saved from them only because they could see I was on my time of the month.”
The three girls said the older men in the gang forced the younger boys to rape them, but after four hours they decided to let them all go.
The mother, 45, of the two sisters told City Press: “I was so hurt when I heard it. To have their virginity stolen by men they don’t know is very hurtful.”
The woman whose modeling agency organized the group of eight girls to film rising star Malvery Martin’s music video said she offered herself to the gang to save the girls.
She said: ‘The parents trust me and every time I go out they expect me to take care of their children. I blamed myself, if I hadn’t been there these girls wouldn’t be there.
“I felt responsible and wanted to take all the pain so they wouldn’t touch the girls.
“The first person they raped was me and they took me into the bush and the second time to a hole where no one could see us and the last time was for the group.
“The older men kept telling the younger boys to rape us and they beat them and forced them to do it. The young boys would take us one by one into the bushes’.
A woman from the production crew was raped by the gang in front of the group. In total, 12 women and 10 men were involved in the recording of a day-long music video. The rape victims were between the ages of 18 and 37.
The gang also systematically robbed the crew and the girls of their cell phones, rings, jewellery, handbags, cash and cameras – worth an estimated £75,000.
Eight models were raped at gunpoint by an armed gang when they shot a gospel music video near an illegal gold mine in South Africa last week
The shocking crime occurred while the production team was filming in the wilderness near West Village, Krugersdorp, near Johannesburg on July 28.
A group of 10 miners had heard the music as the Red Button crew filmed the gospel video and emerged from the bushes wearing balaclavas and fired into the air.
They ordered the models and crew to lie down and then whistled for 10 more men to come out and start taking the girls one by one into the bush to gang-rape them.
The ordeal of the girls lasted four hours, with some girls being raped up to 10 times, while the men in the crew were stripped naked and held at gunpoint during the attack.
A massive police operation involving hundreds of armed officers, dogs, the air wing, drones and helicopters was launched and three of the illegal miners were shot dead after firing at the officers.
The shocking crime that has rocked South Africa has led to massive police raids against hundreds of illegal miners on the ground, operating illegally and using force.
About 142 arrests have been made, but none have yet been linked to the gang rapes, but it is believed that all those arrested are undergoing DNA testing to try to link them to the rapes.
The miners have begun appearing before magistrates in Krugersdorp for illegal mining, illegal immigration, possession of explosives and firearms and attempted murder.
Police are looking for the men responsible for 32 rapes of 8 girls and armed robbery.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered Police Minister Cele to come down with an iron fist and say, “The perpetrators of this crime must be apprehended and dealt with.”
South Africa has the third highest rape rate in the world, with 150 reports per day, but with remote villages and terrified victims, the true figure is believed to be much higher.
It is believed that all rape victims will be tested for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, undergo counseling and have been returned to their families in Johannesburg.
DNA tests in South Africa could take up to a year, but police minister Cele has ordered that the women taken from the women should be followed quickly to compare them with those arrested.
It comes as pressured police minister Bheki Cele faces calls from opposition Democratic Alliance party saying one victim was “lucky” to have only been raped once.
He said live on TV, prompting a response: ‘One woman was raped by 10 different men. The other with 8, the other with 6, the other with 4, the other with 3.
“The 19-year-old was lucky – if she was lucky – that she had been raped by one man rather than several men,” suggesting she was lucky not to have been raped by a group.
The gang rape has shocked a country that already has some of the highest crime rates and third highest rape rate in the world
Despite qualifying the sentence as ‘if all goes well’, the minister’s comment caused anger.
The DA has called for the police minister to be fired for his comments on live TV and has launched a petition to have him removed from office over the “trivial” comment.
A spokeswoman for the SA movement, Mudzuli Rakhivhane, said: ‘Is this how the police think about rape? That victims in SA are lucky if they are only raped by one person?
‘Is this the state of our nation?’
The illegal miners – known as zama zamas – are very dangerous illegal immigrants who illegally venture into old closed mines and reopen and dig them to try to find missed gold.
It is very dangerous with many mine collapses, but the zama zamas can make huge profits and protect their territory relentlessly with AK47s, machetes and handguns.
They terrorize local villages by raping and murdering at will, but the police have largely turned a blind eye until the mass gang rape infuriated the country and spurred them into action.
The gold mines date back to 1887 when a rich layer of the precious metal was mined at nearby Witwatersrand and Krugersdorp emerged as a gold rush boom town.
The massive police operation is underway and the rapists and armed robbers are believed to be among the 142 illegal miners arrested, but none have been identified so far.
A source in the South African Police Service said: ‘Usually an illegal immigrant is deported, but due to the national outcry, an example will have to be set.
“The punishment should be a deterrent to prevent others from crossing our borders,” he said.